Review: Nickelback at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena

Nickelback returned to Detroit Rock City this past weekend and I attended the show. Let me just say this for starters, they rocked the house! Nickelback is touring with Saving Abel and Seether as they promote their newest album release, Dark Horse. The tour stopped in Detroit this past Saturday as all three groups performed at the Joe Louis Arena. I had floor seats, when in reality there were no seats, just standing room on the floor level. That's what I love about floor level tickets, you aren't assigned to just one area, you can move about and move closer if you want and are able to.

Saving Abel opened the Detroit show promptly at 7:00 p.m. followed by Seether's set. When Nickelback came out on stage, the crowd was warmed up and raring to go. The band came out as pyrotechnics exploded! Nickelback kicked off the show playing one of their current radio hits, Something in Your Mouth. The crowd went crazy and was loving every minute of it. They went on to play several other songs off their new album such as Gotta Be Somebody, This Afternoon, Burn It To the Ground, If Today Was Your Last Day, and others. Nickelback also played other classic hits such as Rockstar and If Everyone Cared.

Nickelback's concert in Detroit had a big screen up behind them showing videos during some songs and close-ups of the band members playing during the other songs. Lead singer Chad Kroeger was a real crowd pleaser. He was very personable and entertaining to the crowd both during and in between songs. Drummer Daniel Adair had an awesome drum solo during the show as well. He was the only band member out on stage and he played his drum kit as the drum kit spun around at a slow speed, it also moved from the back of the stage to the front and even elevated off the stage about 10 feet. It was great! The lead singer from opening band Seether, Shaun Morgan, joined Nickelback on stage to sing the song Hey Man Nice Shot, originally written by Filter. It sounded great as well. In between on set of songs, many of the band's roadies came out on stage with these gun like devices with t-shirts wrapped up in them. They launched the t-shirts out in the crowd and many of them even went up into the 2 level of seating. I thought that was kind of neat of the band to do, send band shirts out into the crowd.

The entire show at Joe Louis Arena was full of high energy. Nickelback seemed to be really enjoying themselves on stage. The crowd was great as well. I didn't see any fights in the area I was in, which is usually where they occur the majority of the time since everyone is in close proximity on the mail floor. The band sounded great. There were tons of pyrotechnics the entire show and they were impressive. You could feel the heat being even 50 feet away from the flames. This was my second time seeing Nickelback in concert and I can't wait to see them again!